1 Scope

The CERL Thesaurus aims to provide a comprehensive picture of persons (or groups of persons like companies, monasteries etc.) as well as places involved in the production, distribution and use of books in Europe from the middle of the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century. Each of these entities (persons, places, corporate entities) is represented in the CERL Thesaurus by a record. Currently the database's format provides for four different record types: place names, corporate names, personal names and imprint names, plus a special record type for recording bibliographical details of reference works used in the creation of a Thesaurus record.

This document focuses on the creation of imprint name records. Imprint name records represent persons (or groups of persons) whose name occurs in the imprint of a book, thus describing entities, which carry responsibility for the actual, physical production of the book rather than its intellectual contents. This aims in particular at printers, but may include also publishers, booksellers, bookbinders etc.
For the purpose of clarity and brevity, we shall refer within this document to these persons or corporate entities as printers. All the particulars given below apply in the same way to booksellers, publishers etc.

If a printer has also been involved in the intellectual creation of a book (e.g. as author, translator etc), it becomes necessary to create another record (of the type personal or corporate name) to record this fact, even though the name form used as printer and as author might be the same. In this case, a link should be made between both records (see below 4.2).

This text should be understood as a set of guidelines rather than a set of rules, for the complexity of the subject does not allow for simple straightforward rules, but requires a good amount of expertise and judgement on the editor's side. For the purpose of simplicity, we will occasionally use the term “rules” within the following chapters, which should be understood as 'strong recommendation'. If you are in doubt about the representation of a certain piece of information within a record, do not hesitate to contact CERL or the Data Conversion Group on this matter.

These guidelines are to be understood as a supplement to the CERL Thesaurus Format Description, which should be studied thoroughly before a record is entered into the database, since we are not going to discuss all the data format's details here. Neither will we explain the handling of the WinADH editing client, for which documentation can be found in the WinADH section of this website.

2 Defining the constituent entity

The first step in the creation of an imprint name record is the identification of the entity that should be described by this record. While for personal names records and corporate names records (at least to a certain extent) the constituent entity is easy to identify, telling one printer from another can be a rather difficult matter. Speaking of a printer, we refer to a complex entity that consists of a person (or corporate entity) on the one hand and a workshop owned and run by this person (or corporate entity) on the other hand. The combination of both these parts makes the entity that is actually described in an imprint name record.

Hence, the printer as a person (or corporate body) must not be confused with the business they run – only the combination of both is the basis of an imprint name record; the former can be represented by a record of a different type. Further, a person (or corporate body) may own more than one printing-shop at a time and their business might be rather a bigger venture than just a simple workshop. And again, parts of this bigger venture might be split off and sold or bequeathed to different new owners. Therefore, it can become quite difficult to tell where a printing business started and ended and thus, when to create a predecessor's or successor's record.

2.1 Basic rules

Considering this, we suggest to follow these three basic rules in defining the constituent entity of an imprint name record:

1. If a printing business, (which itself may be considered as an economic unit that consists of more than one printing house) is handed over from one owner1) to another, a new record is created and a reference (successor/predecessor) is made from the earlier entity to the later and vice-versa. This applies in any case, whether the name (either personal or commercial) used in imprints changes or not. This also applies if the new owner of the printing shop is a group of persons with the former owner among them.

Example

210 #1$aCooper$bMary$cDE$5GyGoGBV
410 01$aCooper$bM.
410 01$aCooper$bThomas$rWidow
510 01$5a0$aCooper$bThomas$8ger$nVorg.$3cni00034083
210 #0$aBillingsley$cSE$5SwSKB
300 #0$8eng$aElisabeth Gadde, the widow of Johan Billingsley, continued his printing
house in Stockholm with the help of the foreman J.E. Balduin. Billingsley had
inherited the printing house from his stepfather J.G. Eberdt, and in 1698 it
passed back to the Eberdt side of the family.
410 00$aGadde$bElisabeth$8eng$nReal name, not used in imprints
510 00$5a1$aBillingsley$z1691-1695$3cni00029014
510 00$5b1$aEberdt$z1698-1700$3cni00036760

2. If parts of this economic unit change their owner, while others remain with the former owner, a new record is created only for the new owner. The information that parts of the complex entity became parts of another entity at a certain point in time is recorded in the former owner's record and a reference (successor/predecessor) is made to the new entity and vice-versa. This applies whether the name used in imprints changes or not.

Example

210 #0$aMomma$cSE$5SwSKB
300 #0$8eng$aCatharina Stjerncrona, the widow of Johan Henrich Werner, sold Werner's
printing-house to Peter Momma in March 1738. Momma also acquired the privilege
to print all official publications, which had belonged to the Werner printing-
house, at about the same time. Momma started a type-foundry in Stockholm and a
paper mill in Harg outside Nyköping, he also developed the paper mill of the
Bank of Sweden in Tumba, outside Stockholm. He started a printing-house in
Nyköping, managed at least during the last years by the foreman J.B. Blume.
He bought the Gymnasium printing-house in Västerås in 1740 but never managed
that himself and sold it to the foreman Peter Devall, probably some time in
1741 Klemming-Nordin says 1742 but evidence of imprints speaks for 1741). In
1746 he bought Carl Johansson Röpkes printing-house in Stockholm. He did not
use his name in the Stockholm imprints after 1758. Momma printed the Swedish
bank-notes for the Bank of Sweden, first in his own printing-house, later in
the printing-house of the bank from 1737 until 1772. Momma was also an active
publisher. He transferred his own printing-house to his son Wilhelm as of 1769.
The same year he inherited L.L. Grefing's printing-house, which he managed
until some time in 1771.
510 00$101$5a1$aWerner$z1735-1738$3cni00035616
510 00$101$5b1$aDevall$8eng$nForeman and successor in Västerås$3cni00035630
510 00$101$5z1$aGrefing$z1769-1771$3cni00031337
510 00$102$5a1$aRöpke$3cni00035632
510 00$102$5b1$aKungl. tryckeriet$z1769-1771$8eng$nManaged by Momma's son, Wilhelm Momma
during this period$3cni00035611
510 00$102$5z1$aBlume$bJohan Benjamin$8eng$nMomma's foreman in Nyköping.

3. If one owner is the representative part of two different printer entities, two separate records are created and a reference (see-also) is made from one record to the other and vice-versa. This applies whether the owner's name is used in imprints of both entities or not. References (see-also) to the respective personal name or corporate name records for the owner should be made.

These rules are to be understood as basic principles. In practice, it might sometimes be difficult or even impossible to adhere strictly to them. For manual editing, it is recommended that deviations from these principles are mentioned and, if possible, briefly explained in a cataloguer's note (Field 830).

2.2 Describing Non-Entities

In some cases, imprint names occur that do not stand for one entity. Except for collective pseudonyms, this may particularly apply to family names (i.e. the same imprint name is used by different members of the family) or epithets that might be mistaken for a company's name (e.g. “Kungl. tryckeriet”). Records for these imprint names are made, if either the book production of one bearer of such a name cannot be told from that of the others, or if a general explanatory record (in addition to the records for the actual printers) is considered useful or necessary by the editor.2)

In both cases the name form should be marked as “used for more than one entity”, using code “3” in field 110$a. See-Also references should be made to the actual printers' records (field 510) and a general note (field 300) should explain the facts of the case. The actual printer records should include the heading of such a non-entity record as a variant name form.

We strongly recommend that these non-entity records are created with cautious deliberation and only if they are really considered helpful or necessary. It is needless to say that records for 'real' printers should always be preferred. By no means should a non-entity record be considered as a replacement for records representing specific printers.

Example

110 ##$a3
210 #0$aKungl. tryckeriet
300 #0$8eng$aStandard form for a printer who held a privilege to print official documents
510 00$5z1$aWerner$z1705-1735$3cni00030807
510 00$5z1$aMomma$3cni00010101
515 00$aStockholm$3cnl00001031

3 Describing the printer

3.1 The name

3.1.1 Type of name form

The indication of the type of name form provided in the 210 fields of a record is mandatory in every case. It is given in field 110$a in coded form. The following codes are usually applicable to manually entered imprint name records:

0 Default
1 The name form given in 210 is a pseudonym for a single printer
3 The name form given in 210 is a pseudonym for more than one printer or used as
a regular name form by more than one printer

There is only one field 110 per record, which applies to all occurrences of field 210 within the same record. If the code in field 110 does not seem appropriate for all name forms given in a 210 field, it is most likely that this record should rather be split into separate ones. For merging of records follow the general guidelines on changing the code in field 110$a.

The code value “3” in cases of regular name forms used by more than one printer should be used only for explanatory records (non-entity records - see above). In those cases, where the underlying entities and their book production activities can be differentiated, and where these entities are therefore represented by different records, the code value in these records is “0” (or “1” if it is a pseudonym). In other words: Code value “3” indicates that the name form in field 210 of the very same record stands for more than one printer – it is not used to indicate that there are other records (for other printers) with the same heading.

3.1.2 The standard name form (heading)

A special feature of the CERL Thesaurus is the abandonment of identifying or setting up one preferred name form for an entity. Nevertheless, the data format provides for the differentiation of heading forms and variant name forms. If different libraries use different heading forms, these forms are recorded in repeated 210 fields, with subfields $5 indicating the respective authority files in coded form.

For the purpose of presentation, each record must at least contain one field 210, even if the form given there is not used as a heading in any library catalogue. In that case, subfields $c and $5 may be omitted, unless the use of a specific code has been agreed with CERL.

In the same record, there should preferably only be one heading per institution. However, depending on the cataloguing practice in different institutions two alternatives to deal with special cases present themselves:

a) The existence of two standard forms is entirely accidental and was not made on purpose:

Enter the current one in 210, the other one(s) in a field 410 with a remark in $n (e.g. “this form was used as a standard form by the National Library from 1980 to 1990”)

This may apply, for example, if the cataloguer who has set up an entry form was not aware of the fact that another heading form for the same entity already existed; or the applied cataloguing rules have changed over time within the institution.

b) The setting up of different standard forms has been done on purpose and they are assumed to be used in conjunction to identify an entity.

In this case, repeated 210 fields, giving all standard forms are appropriate. This might also imply that there could be several records with identical headings, depending on how the institution's headings are designed. It may occur with printer families, where the same heading has been used for different generations. It may also occur whenever a printing shop is handed over to a new owner, not necessarily related, but the actual imprint is the same and the same standard heading applies. It is very important that cross-references are made in these cases in 510 with value a, b, s or z respectively in $5 (see below).

If the applied cataloguing rules consider biographical dates being part of the heading, they should be recorded in subfield $r.

When entering names, which are not established heading forms, in field 210 follow the rules below:

Transcribe the name of the printer or the printing business in normalised form. If possible, follow the normalisation rules of your national cataloguing code (e.g. AACR2, RAK-WB etc) or the usage of your institution. If there are no such rules at your disposal, give the name form in the nominative; if the name consists of only one personal name, give it in inverted word order (e.e. last name, first name).

Additions to the name that distinguish identical name forms are given after the name in a subfield $r.

Give any reference works you consulted for setting up the heading form in field 290, give bibliographical details of books from which you transcribed a name form in field 291.

Examples

210 #0$aGroot$ede$bGijsbert$rWeduwe
210 #1$aSachse$bMelchior$rder Jüngere$cDE$5GyGoGBV
290 #1$aBenzing (Drucker), S. 111
210 #0$aDeleen$cSE$5SwSKB
210 #0$aForsgren$cSE$5SwSKB (Used for a printing house owned and run in conjunction
by these persons.)
210 #1$aReinicke & Hinrichs$rLeipzig$cDE$5GyGoGBV
210 #0$aGrefing$cSE$?5SwSKB (Used in records for Lorentz Ludwig Grefing
and for Peter Momma who inherited Grefing's printing house
and continued it under the old firm.)

3.1.3 Variant names

Variants name forms are given in field 410. The recording of variant names serves two purposes: On the one hand, each variant name form is an additional access point to the record for users searching the CERL Thesaurus for the purpose of reference. On the other hand, variant name forms are used to expand queries in bibliographical databases that do not provide their own authority files, particularly CERL's Heritage of the Printed Book (HPB) database. The following variant name forms should therefore be provided in a printer's record:

1. Variant spellings or translations of the printer's name that occur in imprints of their books

If the heading is not a personal name, give all variants that occur in imprints of this printer's books. If the heading is a personal name, record all variant forms of the last name you can find. To which extent variants of the first name are given is left to the editor's judgement.
If names are transcribed in an inflected form, an additional entry in the nominative should be made in another field 410. Introductory phrases can be recorded (subfield $f) if considered necessary; if this is done, the parts of a printer's name must be transcribed verbatim from the imprint.

2. Variant forms of names that occur in scholarly works or other reference works

Give all variant name forms that you find in scholarly communications about that printer, including all variants for the first name (if the heading is a personal name). If possible, add the abbreviation for the reference work, which uses a specific name form as a lemma in subfield $s.3)

Example

410 01$aSermartelli$bBartolomeo$rsen.$sAMTCI

3. Real names if the heading in field 210 is a pseudonym or consists of an indication of a relationship to another printer

This case applies if field 110$a holds the code “1” or the heading in field 210 comprises phrases like “widow of”, “heirs of” etc. and a name of a person who is not the (current) owner of the described printing business.

The reason for recording real names is mainly that they are used in other authority files, reference works and occasionally as normalised entries in bibliographic files. Therefore, they should be searchable in the CERL Thesaurus as well.

Real names that are not used in imprints of the described printers are recorded in a normalised form (in nominative and inverted word order). A note, indicating that this particular name does not occur in imprints should be added in subfield $n.

While variants of a pseudonymous heading should themselves be marked as fictional forms (see indicator position 1), a real name is always marked as non-fictional.

4. Names of foremen and leaseholder that occur in imprints of the described printers book production

Record these names in the same way as variant names of the printer. If the foreman/leaseholder takes over (parts of) the printing business or starts their own printing business at a later point in time, make an additional entry in field 510 (see below).

For recording variant name forms, the following general rules apply:

A name may be given in natural word order or in inverted word order. Always use subfield $a for the last name (if it is a personal name) and subfield $b for the first name.

If an inflected form is recorded, do not give the name in inverted word order, unless it is a verbatim transcription from a book's imprint.

Name forms that do not occur in imprints are given in inverted word order. An appropriate note should be added.

If variant name forms are connected to specific circumstances or printing places, make an appropriate note.

Use subfield $f for the transcription of imprint phrases other than the printer's name.

Use subfield $r for additions to the name and filing qualifiers according to the applied normalisation rules (see above).

Dates (subfield $z) are given only if the range of years for the specific variant form differs from the range given in field 340, and if this difference is considered important. This subfield should not hold biographical dates. If several ranges or single years are recorded, separate them with commas within the same subfield.

Examples

410 00$fKongl. tryckeriet hos directeuren$bPet.$aMomma$z1738-1758
410 00$fkongl. consist. och gymn. tryckeriet af factoren$bPet.$aDevall$8eng$nImprint
used in the Västerås printing house
410 00$aFougt$bHenrik$rWitwe$8eng$nThis form was never used in imprints

3.2 Other information

Since the CERL Thesaurus is used more as a reference tool than an authority file, give as much information on the printer as possible. Field 300 provides for extensive descriptions of the printer's activities and relationships to other printers, persons or corporate bodies. Avoid a full biographical account, though, but refer, if possible, to a biographical source instead. Give any notes here in English or in your own language and repeat it in English if it seems necessary for general understanding.

3.2.1 Gender

It is strongly recommended to give the gender of the printing-house's owner in field 120$a if possible. If the owner is a corporate body or the printing-house is owned by more than one person, you should use “x” as the code. This applies also to those cases, where the name of the business is rather a firma than a personal name.

3.2.2 Biographical Information

If the owner of the printing business is a single person, biographical data should be given in field 340. This information is entered in text form ($a) and, wherever possible, in coded, machine-readable form ($x).

Of similar or even more importance are the dates of activity, which indicate the time period, when the printing-business was owned by the named printer. These dates should always be given in another field 340. If the owner of the printing business is a corporate entity, give only the years of activity.

In cases where biographical dates or dates of activity are uncertain and several possibilities exist or some reference works give conflicting dates, repeated 340 fields are recommended.

If the dates given in 340$a consist only of dates or a name followed or preceded by dates, use the language code “und” (undefined) in subfield $8, otherwise indicate the language you are using.

3.2.3 Activity information

Information on the actual activity (or nature) of the described entity should be given in field 350, either as a free-text note or using controlled vocabulary. Controlled vocabulary can be taken from any adequate list agreed with CERL. Please contact CERL if you wish to use lists others than those mentioned in the CERL Thesaurus Format Description. If controlled vocabulary is used – which we recommend – the source must be indicated in subfield $2.

3.2.4 Geographical information

The printing places, where a printer has been active should be recorded in field 515. All fields 515 should have a link to the respective place name record. If a place is recorded for which no place name record yet exists, a new record should be created.

Field 515 provides also for the recording of addresses and signs used in connection with addresses (subfields $d and $e). Extensive descriptions of printers' devices should be made in field 516, though. Dates, where a printer was active in a specific town are recorded in subfield 515$z.

If more than one printing place is given in a record, the following rules apply:
1. Create a field 515 for each printing place; give the time period, when the printer was active in each place, if possible.
2. Create a chronological order using subfield $1.
3. If there are several addresses for the printer within the same town, create one field for the town itself, giving the entire time range in subfield $z and create a separate field 515 for each address (if possible indicating the particular date range). Order the fields chronologically by inserting one or more subfields $1, in such a way that the field holding the name of the town without an address precedes the other fields for the same town.

3.2.5 Titles

Titles of books produced by the described printer should be given in field 291 if they are a source for a name form recorded in a field 210.

The indication of other titles is optional: you may give the first and the last known title printed by the described printer in repeated fields 291. But take into account that the CERL Thesaurus is not a bibliographical database; therefore we don't encourage editors to provide exhaustive title lists in a printer's record.

3.2.6 Devices

The recording of printers' devices is strongly recommended, wherever this information is known. Field 516 provides for a verbal description of the device including a notes subfield as well as for links to digitised images of devices.

3.3 Recording the sources of information

Reference Works and other information sources are given in abbreviated form in field 290 if they are related to the entire record (or larger parts thereof) or to a name form in field 210. Sources that are related to a single field only should be given in a subfield $s of the respective field. If the referred work has a good index, don't add page references, it makes the record unnecessarily cluttered. Add a new subfield for each reference.

If possible, use abbreviations, which are already recorded in a reference-work record within the CERL Thesaurus (caf). If no such record is available, create a new one for the source you are using.

3.4 Linking to external web resources

If there are good resources on a particular printer out on the web (e.g. a biography, images etc.), they can be linked to using field 856. Links to images of printers' devices and descriptions thereof should be given in field 516, though. Scholarly communications might be mentioned in an annotation to the record within Scholar's Notepad.

4 Describing relationships to other entities

4.1 Related imprint names

If possible, the relation of the described printer to other printers should be represented by links to other CERL Thesaurus records. These links are recorded in fields 510. This field traces predecessors and successors, collaborators as well as relationships between printing houses that cannot be classified as one of those.

Record, if possible, all immediate predecessors (i.e. the printing-houses that have been taken over by the described printer) and successors (i.e. the printers who took over the described printing business or parts of it). If a printer has purchased more than one printing-house during his period of activity or has sold or bequeathed his business to more than one other printers, describe the actual circumstances in a note on this field.

Give a heading form of the target record in subfields $a, $b, $e and $r and add a note on the kind of relationship in subfield $n and the time period in which this relationship occurred in subfield $z.
Use subfield $z also if there are several printing shops with the same standard form and only one of them is concerned. The dates should then be the activity dates of 340$a from the target record.

The link to the target record is established by the respective record identifier in subfield $3. The use of subfield $3 is mandatory if an appropriate target record is present in the CERL Thesaurus. If no target record is available, make sure that an index entry is created from the name form given in this field by setting the appropriate indexing indicator in subfield $5.

A mandatory element of field 510 is the tracing control subfield ($5). This subfield consists of two code positions, the first one indicating the type of relationship, the second one controls display and indexing of this field. The code value “0” at the second code position will force an index entry for the name contained in the field, while the value “1” prevents this field from indexing.The value 0 should be used primarily when there is no target record in the CERL Thesaurus to link to. If there is a target record in the database, the value 1 will be the normal choice. Subfield $5 must precede all other subfields in this field, except for subfield $1.

If there are more than one predecessor or successor to be recorded, a sorting order might be indicated by the use of subfield $1. This subfield is entered immediately before subfield $5 or the subfield that needs to be sorted.When editing an existing record that has already used subfield $1 in 510 fields, it is necessary to continue to add subfield 1 in any new 510 field.

Foremen and leaseholders whose names do not appear in imprints of a book produced by the described printer and who are not recorded as predecessors or successors anyway, can also be mentioned in a field 510. The type of relationship code in subfield $5 should be “z”; the index control code should be “0”.

4.2 Other related names

4.2.1 Persons

If the printer's heading is a personal name and a personal name record for this person exists, link to this record using field 500. If there is no personal name record, but the person has also been involved in the production of intellectual contents (e.g. as a translator), repeat the heading from field 210 in a field 500. In both cases the type of relationship code in subfield $5 should be “z”. The indexing control code should be “0” if there is no target record to link to; otherwise, it should be “1”.

4.2.2 Corporate bodies

If the printer's heading is a name of a corporate body, which itself is not a printing business, indicate this relationship in a field 512, either by linking to an existing CERL Thesaurus record or by repeating the heading from field 210. The tracing control code in subfield $5 should be “g”. The indexing control code should be “0” if there is no target record to link to; otherwise, it should be “1”.
The same applies if the corporate body name is only a part of the heading or the dependency of the printing-shop from the corporate body is implicit in the name.

5 Editing existing records

Before creating a new record, it is recommended to check carefully if a record for the printer in question already exists. However, it is possible to merge two records at a later point in time using WinADH's deduplication function.

Changing information that is already present in a CERL Thesaurus record should be done with care. Do delete or correct data only after making sure it is definitely wrong by checking the sources mentioned in field 290 or subfield $s of the field in question.4) Always give the benefit of the doubt, particularly in matters of spellings of name forms: Something that looks like an obvious typo might equally be a verbatim transcription from a book's imprint. Major changes to a record should be commented upon in field 830.

Parallel information in different languages should be kept in the records (unless you have proof that the information is wrong), while redundant information in fields 340, 3505) or 515 might be removed or summarized.

Information given in the fields 340, 350 and 356 should not be substituted by a summary in field 300. Data that is obviously misplaced, though, should be moved to the appropriate field. Heading forms (field 210) of other institutions must not be edited at all.

Any field that has been edited should be marked with the value “0” at indicator position 2, if the format description permits it. This protects the field against being changed in an automated update process.

This applies to businesses owned by persons as well as corporate bodies (e.g. monasteries). A corporate body might change in a way that a new constituent entity would be assumed if it were to be represented by a corporate name record (e.g. as the successive, subordinated or parent body). This does justify the creation of a new imprint name record only if this change has an impact on the name form occurring in the imprint.

This kind of explanatory record states what would be obvious from the index anyway. Thus, it is to be understood as an extra bit of information, which communicates more explicitly that the editor has considered the matter, is aware of the fact that there is a possible source of misunderstanding and presents the solution.

There might be cases, where information on different printers has accidentally been mixed. If this seems to have happened, try to split the existing record into two and – for the time being – make an internal note in field 830 of each new record, quoting the identifier of the respective other record. If the splitting results in the deletion of the current record, give its identifier as well. There is not yet an agreed policy on the matter of splitting records, therefore keep as much information in the cataloguer's note field as possible.